Are you wondering just how to use social media for business? Before you go bah humbug I promise I’ll be quick. In a previous post we looked what is
required to build a social media content strategy (click here) which was presented by social media expert Mikal E. Belicove. You may be like me and find business theories interesting but all too often find that the reality as quite different. So I was greatful to find an article and video which gives actual real life examples of how social media and specifically facebook has helped two businesses, in the language and style of actual small business owners. It also reiterated the steps in my previous post. Phew!
Click the link below to view the video & read the article:
How to Use Social Media for Business
Don’t fall into the trap that Facebook and other types of social media are the total answer and will automatically generate sales. Social media is all about building a relationship, getting potential customers to know, like and trust you….. it’s then when your authority is established that the sales can occur.
Jennifer of Facebook Ads Lab has this to say:
The key thing to remember – and a big mistake many marketers make – is that your WEBSITE is the center of your business. Not your Facebook Fan page.
Gather traffic from Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc and drive it all to your main “money site”. This means that you want to use Facebook to continually send people to your website. Don’t get confused and start thinking your Facebook Fan Page is the “be all” of your business. It’s not. Your “money site” is. source: Fb ads lab.com
So this is how to use social media in business, as a tool, but not as a sales technique.
And also just to add more confusion, here’s something else to consider, do your customers actually want a social relationship with you? Pete Davis, MD, of Getmemedia.com shares the following on how brands can humanise their social media strategy.
So where should they start? I asked some the social media experts at UM to come up with their top five tips…
1) Don’t assume that your consumer wants a social relationship with you. They may just want to transact with your brand and nothing else. Don’t waste time, effort and investment on creating a social relationship when there isn’t a genuine consumer need for one.
2) If you find that your consumers do want a social relationship with you, find out what kind of relationship they want. Not all consumers, brands and categories want the same kind of social interaction with brands. Some want very superficial relationships, i.e. “tell me when your new product comes out” and some want very deep relationships i.e. “let me work with you to develop new products that really meet my needs”. Knowing where your consumer fits along this scale is important, because otherwise you potentially over invest in an experience that the consumer ultimately doesn’t want or under invest in an experience that fails to meet the consumer’s needs or expectations. read the full post here
I’m now coming to the realisation that there is so much to the social media stuff that I am unable to devote enough time, energy and brain cells to it, I have a business to run! At some point I can see myself having to employ someone to help me.
I hope this has been a help with starting to get you on the right track on how to use social media for business. How are you coping with social media in your business? Leave a comment so that we can help each other.
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I keep hearing about using a timer for social media, to keep from wasting time! I haven’t done it yet tho. I know I need to get really organized – somehow it seems hard to find the time for that!
Lol, I know what you mean! By the time I try and set my oven timer or attempted to set up a timer on my phone I could have done half of it. Somehow we have to decide which bits of social media are important to us and/or our business and forget about the rest…. ahhh too hard…
I’m still perplexed about ‘social’ media as it applies to business. My very small attempts at this so far have been major time sinks and nothing ‘productive’. Sooooo much to learn! Keep up the great articles on this subject.
Ditto for me…will get on it
Thanks Rebecca